Earlier tonight, photographer Terry Richardson was walking into Lovely Day on Elizabeth Street for dinner as a friend and I were leaving. I don't really care for his work, but I find his quotes hysterical; see above for an excellent example.

It's possible that I may be a little meaner than usual today: I didn't get much sleep last night and, as a result, have been drinking so much coffee that I feel a little like one of those kittens that can't see vertical lines, but... I am absolutely in love with this shirt. Right now it just seems so honest and true.

After having visited Chibitini tonight, and enjoyed the limitlessly entertaining company of this enchanting little creature (as well as great drinks & food and, that New York rarity at reasonable prices, friendly and efficient service), I find myself humming Chantilly Lace and planning when to go back: ...Make me act so funny, make me spend my money...

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of viewing the new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum called Princely Splendor: The Dresden Court, 1580-1620. Sadly, it failed to capture the same bewitching sense of enchantment that I was besotted with by after reading "The Green Vault," a book on the same subject published by Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden in 1988 (7th ed.). But then again, it's a truly amazing little book. Noted,

The Green Vault has the largest collection of a special group of jeweller's sculptures for which there is no appropriate name. These sculptures are small figures composed of pearls, precious stones and enamelled gold. The invention was usually stimulated by a misshapen pearl.

The Green Vault sounds like quite an intriguing and special thing, and I hope to visit it in Dresden some day.

The exhibition at the Met is still very interesting and should not at all be judged by its inability to live up to my love of a magical but exceedingly slim volume - an elaborate tourist pamphlet, really - that I bought at a secondhand shop.

On display are many fine examples of precious objects constructed mostly from exotic materials - coral, shells, ostrich eggs, serpentine - and lots of more common ones - mostly silver and gold. There is also a gorgeous embroidered cape in the show, which the accompanying text helpfully notes was worn by the bridegroom for two of his weddings, and an exquisite crystal "bowl on a dolphin," which is exactly as it sounds.

We are in the midst of a revival for this sort of thing, I think, which seems rather hot right now as evidenced by The New York Times, "Currents" column, by Elaine Louie (11.8):

Bronze anatomical figures studied by 17th-century scientists, early hourglasses and a whale's tusk ($25,000) that once passed for a unicorn's horn are among the items on exhibit at ``A Collector's Cabinet of Curiosities: Objects for a Wunderkammer From the 16th to the 19th Centuries.'' The show runs through Jan. 29 at Peter Freeman Inc., a SoHo gallery. In the 16th century, monarchs and popes started collecting exotica and assembling them in wunderkammern, or rooms of wonder. ``It was the beginning of collecting and the beginning of our museums,'' said Georg Laue, whose Munich gallery is presenting the 120 objects in the show. Peter Freeman Inc. is at 560 Broadway (Prince Street); (212)966-5154.

I may check that one out, or I might just go down to The Strand bookstore to flip through the display copy of the extravagantly beautiful Taschen edition of Albertus Seba's Cabinet of Curiosities again.

Also of interest, Trigger magazine's story on Obscura, a New York shop specializing in odd things:

One curio case alone contains black and white death portraits, antique jewelry, Cupie dolls and glass bottles that once contained strychnine. In another large case, there is a wax head from a London museum, a mummified cat and a glass box filled with the most beautiful butterflies one could hope to see … removed from nature.

I am going to Paris for a few days soon, and I hope to visit Deyrolle, if my traveling companion can be persuaded to indulge me for a little while. I've always heard that it's strange and unusual, and I certainly like the sound of that.

11.6: Zoo Theatre is a new company started by a few freakishly talented friends of mine – all under 25 – among them Jonathan C. Kaplan (nominated for a 1992 Tony Award at age 11) and David Mishook (recently co-wrote a new adaptation of Kiss of the Spider Woman for Manhattan Ensemble Theater). Dreaming of Norton, a world premiere, is their first production. Says Jonny, “With beautiful logic and wit, the play explores the universal theme of being alone.” Saturday night marks the third of four performances (the play opens Thursday and ends with a Sunday matinee). 8:00pm, $15.

More information can be found in an earlier post from last week. My mother is coming to visit me this weekend and we're going to check it out on Saturday.

I don't know what to think about those red-staters today, but I don't know much about them either. More than anything, they scare the shit out of me every four years. I've been to Mississippi many times, which illustrated for me quite effectively the tragedy of our public education system (In my Maryland kindergarten, I was learning to read; when I went to school with my cousin, we were expected to color quietly, and punished - with extra coloring - if we drew outside the lines), and lived in Louisiana, where the "hog-doggin" debate was quite heated. The two articles I most vividly remember reading in the newspaper while I lived there: a story about the trend of people killing their parents for video poker money and an analysis of a study that found two-thirds of adults in the state were functionally illiterate.

Last night's election map only reinforced whatever vague prejudices I had towards the so-called "fly-over states." How on earth can people think that Bush, who -- and this should be obvious for anyone who has ever heard him speak -- is anything but an embarassment to this country? Not to mention the policies that he has enacted that have affected women, and their families, and no doubt, the worst is yet to come. We are truly living in dark times.

CampaignDesk.org continues to produce excellent commentary and reporting on the media and the election process, and if you're as bewildered as I am about how this could have happened given the incontrovertible facts and events of the last four years, go and check out this book today.